Measuring Polarization of the CMB at the James Ax Observatory

First Light in Chile!

Installing the POLARBEAR bolometer arrayThe POLARBEAR experiment achieved first light in Chile on January 10th, 2012 with observations of Saturn.

Below we show signals from  two polarization-sensitive detectors in one array pixel.  To the right, the 1284-bolometer array is being installed. At the bottom, a beam map from Jupiter is shown.

 The team is currently preparing the system for science observations in April, when weather conditions in Chile become suitable.

Click here to see the path to first light!